Because
by Mechanical Cerberus
Summary: [one-shot] [Mild shounen-ai, so mild it could be taken as friendship: MizunagiLafayel] Set during volume 2, covering both of Lafayel's accidents.


**Because **

**I couldn't resist. A Mizunagi/Lafayel fanfic, because we need some of these.**

**SETTING: Volume two because there's really almost no other place to set this...**

**  
NOTE: There is no sexual use of anything in this fic, and certain parts require a certain amount of maturity – which I'm sure most of us here have, I just thought I'd make a note so you don't think I rated this too low before you finished reading it. (it's down in paragraph 11 where people think it might be dirty, but it is not meant to be)**

**  
WARNING: Shounen-ai, although it's mild, mild enough it could be taken as mere friendship. I also think that I may have made them a little OOC, but I tried not to. Ooh yes, and this story may skip around a lot – apologies for it.**

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"I can't believe the shit you get yourself into sometimes, Lafayel," Mizunagi muttered between his teeth and over his cigarette as he dropped the burned and unconscious Eraser onto the mattress, who in response groaned in pain despite his unconsciousness. "Look before you leap, idiot," he pulled his cigarette away from his mouth and tossed it to the floor, crunching it under one of his feet as he began to dig around through one of the drawers in the small bedside table, pulling out bandages and ointment.

"Perhaps you should be a little gentler with him, Mizunagi," Kasei murmured in his soft voice from the corner of the room. Mizunagi shot him a look.

"Can you get out of here? _I_ have a _patient_ to tend to," he said. "And you'll be nothing short of a distraction."

Without any retaliation, Kasei got to his feet, picking up his sword and walking calmly from the room as if it had been a casual conversation rather than a hostile one. Shortly afterwards, Lafayel grunted as he started to wake from his unconscious state. "Ughn…"

"Ooh quit your moaning," the dark-haired individual glanced around momentarily, searching for a source of water. Finding none already in the room, he moved towards the doorway.

"Mizunagi! Don't leave!" Lafayel, although still waking, was able to register his comrade's actions, and he sounded almost afraid. His voice was also rather hoarse and tense, probably due to the burns around his neck and jaw.

"I'm getting water for you," came the dark reply from the door and the psychic slipped out without a word, not even when his companion whimpered from his place in the other room. Returning shortly after his departure, Mizunagi strode calmly to the bedside, carrying a dish of water and a glass of water. A cloth floated in the dish, soaking up some of the clear liquid. "Do you need a drink before I get started?" he asked.

"Yes… please Mizunagi…"

"Don't talk more than you have to, you dolt," Mizunagi put down the dish of water, and then knelt by the bed. He helped pull Lafayel into a seated position, although the Eraser winced from the pain of moving a severely burned body, and held the cup to his lips for him. After his drink, the cup was put on the bedside table and Lafayel was laid down once more.

Removing the cloth from the dish, the dark-haired psychic moved to start cleaning the burns. He threw his hands up shortly after. "The burns are under your clothes, too. Ugh… c'mon Lafayel – strip."

"I can hardly move and you expect me to strip?"

"Why do you have to talk back and make things difficult? Fine, I'll do it for you," Mizunagi grumbled as he did the work himself. "It's not like you can roll up your pant legs or anything, and your shirt doesn't really matter. If you _could_ roll up your pant legs than we wouldn't have to do it this way… you and your tight clothes."

"Shut up, Mizunagi…"

"Stop talking or you'll hurt yourself more! Our master will kill you if you become too useless."

_Like you care, _Lafayel thought bitterly as he turned his gaze away in silence.

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Once the burns had all been washed and bandaged by Mizunagi, Lafayel had gone to sleep. Mizunagi had draped a blanket over him and now sat on the end of the bed, another one of his cigarettes between his teeth and his chin in his hands, elbows on his knees as he waited for orders.

He knew that chances were small he would get assigned anything until Lafayel was in condition to work, or at least until Kaoru thought that he had finished with the other man.

"How's he doing, Mizunagi?" Kasei inquired as he walked into the room, Ama-inu trailing behind him.

Pulling the cigarette from his mouth, he spoke. "If he's fine enough to talk back, he's fine enough for me to stop watching him like some sort of nanny."

"Don't be so bitter," Kasei chided in a teasing manner, and Mizunagi shot him a sideways glare. He moved forwards and leaned over Lafayel, examining the sleeping boy's face. Or at least as much of the face as he could through the bandages. "He looks like he's sleeping peacefully."

"Like a log," Mizunagi whispered before inhaling deeply on a puff of his cigarette. "Anything new?"

"Master doesn't want us to do anything for a while."

"Pfft, that sucks."

A long silence filled the room after the hollow conversation, and Kasei turned to leave with Ama-inu, losing interest in the sleeping, bandaged form of Lafayel. Mizunagi watched quietly as they left, not minding being left alone with his thoughts, even if he wasn't truly alone.

_Why do I worry about Lafayel? He's the one that gets himself into the trouble. He does it all himself… it's not like I have to go feeling guilty about something stupid he did. Ugh… but I am mean to him. But he's an idiot, he deserves it, _he tilted his head back over his shoulder to watch Lafayel sleep for a while. _He's so… small. He's not muscled at all – not like Kasei, Ama-inu and I. And he isn't tall like Kuga… he's bigger than Kaoru of course but for a man he's small._

_I wonder if he's really as fragile as he looks._

Mizunagi was pulled from his thoughts as Lafayel jerked awake, eyes snapping open. "Mizunagi…!"

"I'm right here, Lafayel… what is it?" he asked lazily, though surprised himself a little at the gentle tone in his voice.

"Ah…" without responding to the question, though seeming to calm considerably at the voice, the light-haired Eraser lay his head back down and closed his eyes, quickly drifting back to sleep with a deep breath.

The psychic had a hard time not thinking that it was cute; Lafayel had just woken and called for him, but seeing that he had been there, the injured man had gone right back to sleep as if nothing had happened.

Gently he reached over and rubbed one of Lafayel's uninjured bare feet, which were sticking out from under the blanket that had earlier been tossed over him. "Cute little thing…"

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With a yawn and no severe pain following it, Lafayel woke up. He would have rubbed his eyes, but when his hand came in contact with him a little under his eye it stung and he hissed through his teeth, lowering his hand. He turned his head a little to the side, spotting Mizunagi – sitting upright against the wall although appearing to be asleep – with a cigarette still in his mouth.

Lafayel was thankful the cigarette had not fallen onto the bed (he'd had enough of burns), and slowly he sat up. Reaching over, he gripped the cigarette and pulled it away from Mizunagi, only to have the man open his eyes groggily in response. He took the cigarette back, threw it to the floor and stepped on it afterwards.

"Mizunagi…"

"Good morning, Lafayel," he greeted. "Did you rest well? Do you feel well enough that we can inform our master you can work?"

"She'll make me work, feeling good or not."

Although Mizunagi knew Lafayel was right, he didn't bother to tell him that, and instead he ignored the comment. "Come on, then," he said, getting to his feet and turning to face the Eraser. "Let's get you dressed and see how well you can walk."

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All things considered, Lafayel could walk fairly well. He walked slower than he usually did, but he didn't need help partly because he was healing quickly. His wings had mostly healed already, and so if he had to fly he could, even if it was uncomfortable. The duo made their way silently down the hall towards the room that their master was in.

That visit made Mizunagi realize he would have to remind Lafayel to forget his pride while confronting Kaoru.

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Applying pressure to the sword wound was something Mizunagi had no trouble doing, but Lafayel was a different story. The other man would whimper or sometimes even twitch as his dark-haired companion attempted to clean out the injury and stop the bleeding. "I have almost no sympathy for you…"

Receiving no response other than a yelp of pain when he accidentally pressed too hard on the wound, the psychic fell silent. He couldn't help but yawn, however. Taking care of Lafayel was certainly getting old, but he would rather he did it than any of the others. When he looked back on it, he was becoming very possessive about the job of 'doctor' in their little group. Or at least when it came to the Eraser.

He recalled snapping at Kasei to leave, simply because he had been in the room; even though chances were high that the Arayashiki faction member wouldn't have helped him look after Lafayel at all.

_Boring because I do it so often, but… it's Lafayel, _and as much as Mizunagi tried to find other reasons for wanting to be 'doctor', he couldn't and so he just grunted and continued with his work, focusing on it rather than on his personal thoughts.

Once he had taken care of the sword wound – washing it, slowing the bleeding at least a little, stitching it and bandaging it – he wiped Lafayel's face with a cool, damp cloth. "You get yourself into so much trouble sometimes… such a fool."

Coughing a little bit, the light-haired man looked up at Mizunagi. "Why do you always take care of me?"

"… Because… Ama-inu would probably injure you more, I'm sure he doesn't know his own strength. As far as I know Kuga doesn't care, it was his sword that you got stabbed with. Kaoru's the one that made you stab yourself, if you will, and Kasei…" truth be told, Mizunagi wasn't exactly sure of a reason as to why Kasei wouldn't look after Lafayel. "I don't let Kasei."

"But why not?"

"You're certainly talking a lot for someone who's been burned and stabbed in the last few days," getting to his feet, he brushed the dust from the floor off his knees and turned towards the door. "Now get some rest."

"… Mizunagi…" when the psychic looked over his shoulder, cigarette in his mouth and a raised eyebrow, Lafayel felt a little lost. Usually Mizunagi only left for short periods of time and then he would come back and watch over him to make sure he got better. But somehow with the way he had just turned, it seemed that he wasn't intending to come back unless he was called. And so Lafayel had called him – it had been almost like a reflex.

"What?"

The Eraser managed a sad little smile. Something he only did when around Kasei, Mizunagi or Ama-inu, and even then it was rare. The cigarette-wielding man assumed it was probably because they were the only three people that Lafayel was comfortable around. Added onto that, none of them liked being bossed around by Kaoru.

"I thought you already knew… I don't like to be alone when I'm hurt…"

"One would assume I had learned that by now," Mizunagi replied, pulling his cigarette out of his mouth and returning to the bedside. "But fine," he sighed. "I'll stay if you really think you need me here."

Lafayel curled himself into a fetal position, however he shifted enough to rest his head on one of Mizunagi's legs. "So… why not Kasei…?" he asked, closing his eyes.

"I told you to rest," smoke was blown into the air as the responding man exhaled, but he continued to speak anyways. "Why do you want to know, anyways? You in love with him or something?"

Lafayel scrunched his eyes shut more. "No, I just want to know why!"

"Because… you're _my_ patient."

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**They were more OOC than I would have liked.**

**Wh00t. I finished writing it… however, not as shounen-ai-like as I first intended to make it. It can be taken, as a friendship fic if you'd rather it be that, for those of you who don't like the Mizunagi/Lafayel pairing… but I like that pairing…**

**Aw man, there needs to be more Gabriel/Tsukasa out there that isn't rated above PG-13… there should also be more Kaname/Mana. I'll write more Kaname/Mana… and eventually I'll get around to writing Gabriel/Tsukasa. But… school starts tomorrow (March 21), and so my March Break ends. Though hopefully I'll find time to write amongst that. Don't know how much schoolwork I'll have, though I rarely have very much. I'm efficient in class! Lacking much homework. I'll ask Shusoka for some plot suggestions…**

**If anyone has any pairing suggestions for Juvenile Orion or Yami no Matsuei (since those are the two I feel like writing most right now) then put them in your review and I'll consider them. With those two manga/anime I can see almost any pairing, so… yup; suggest away.**


End file.
